1. Technical Field
The disclosure relates generally to the field of audio/visual (A/V) consumer electronics devices, as well as networks thereof. More particularly, in one exemplary aspect, the disclosure is directed to methods and apparatus adapted to virtual channel allocation on an A/V interface.
2. Description of Related Technology
DisplayPort® is an exemplary and emerging digital display interface technology specified by the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA). Current incarnations of the standard specify support for simple networking of digital audio/visual (A/V) interconnects, intended to be used primarily between an arbitrary assembly of multimedia “sources” (e.g., computers or CPUs) and “sinks” (e.g. display monitors, home-theater system, etc.). This interconnection is generally unidirectional in nature; i.e., from source to sink, in current implementations.
For reasons described in greater detail hereinafter, incipient research is directed to leveraging portions of DisplayPort technology for internal consumer electronics device operations (e.g., bus interfaces, etc.). Various implementation specific considerations require substantial modifications to the underlying DisplayPort control scheme. For example, certain internal components (e.g., camera modules) lack sufficient processing capabilities to comply with DisplayPort bus protocols including, but not limited to, virtual channel allocation. Other aspects of the DisplayPort protocol may be “over-designed”, or provide capabilities which are unnecessary.
Accordingly, improved methods and apparatus are needed to support internal consumer electronics device operations using DisplayPort technology (such as virtual channel allocation). More generally, apparatus and methods are needed for networking internal components of a consumer electronics device.